Everywhere I Go, Everyone is Sick of This Winter
We’re all just so sick and tired of winter here in New England that we can’t even joke about it any more. On Thursday I drove to Boston with Paul Shoul for a lunch with some Atlantic Canada tourism people. We parked on a street where every car was perched […]
Fort Hill Brewing: A 50-Barrel System with Hops Growing Next Door
Fort Hill Brewery’s big grain silos loom before you out of farm fields driving up Fort Hill Road, off Ferry Street in Easthampton. The footprint is huge, with the towers and a new steel building that looks like a medium sized factory. This new Easthampton brewery is by far the […]
The Lives of Others
In our little country neighborhood, we enjoy watching the parade of people walk by, and the pulse of the neighborhood during different times of the year. We watch our neighbor’s kids on their playset, the single men next door clearing their driveway of snow, and the passing parade of walkers […]
Helsinki Restaurant Week: 3000 Pop-up Eateries For Just One Day
Paul Shoul and I are planning a May trip to Helsinki, Finland. Fortunately, we’ll be there right in time for Restaurant Week. This is a really great idea, considering how many people I’ve met in my life who harbor hopes as budding restauranteurs or food truck operators. From the Helsinki […]
The Roller Coaster Goes Up…and then Down
Do you go from despair to delight, back and forth up and down and sideways? I am startled this week by how great I feel, how optimistic and positive I feel. This contrasts mightily with two weeks ago when I was fretting about the weather, felt down and depressed about […]
North Amherst’s Newest Restaurant, Bread & Butter, Is Open
When I met Cinda Jones at a party on New Year’s Eve, she was very happy to talk about her nascent Mill District and the new businesses that would be opening up there in 2015. Today we ate at the new restaurant that occupies the second half of the Trolley […]
It’s Always Good to Be Back Home
To me there’s nothing better than getting back home to my very comfortable and familiar routine. No matter how much fun I have on a trip and no matter how relieved I might have been to bask in the balmy temperatures of California, just waking up at my usual time […]
Chinatown’s Secrets Revealed with Dorothy of Wok Wiz Tours
If you’ve ever wandered through San Francisco’s Chinatown, you probably did what we did last time. We had no idea where to go, what to see, and ended up in a souvenir shop with no clue about what to see or do. We wanted to know more about the history […]